The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields is a sweet and enchanting tale that blends magic, nature, and personal discovery. The story follows a witch whose talents with honey and bees extend far beyond brewing potions, weaving themes of healing, friendship, and self-growth throughout its pages. Shields creates a world that feels both cozy and alive, perfect for readers who enjoy gentle magic and character-driven stories.

While the plot may feel a bit slow at times, the lush descriptions and warm, inviting atmosphere make up for it. It's a heartwarming read for those who love a touch of magic in their everyday lives. A solid 7/10 for its charm and cozy vibes.

The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.

The story is sweet and definitely good. However, the pacing felt rushed and as though the author felt everything needed to be included in the set up right away. While some books do take way too long for set up, the pacing could have been spread out a little more here.

I did love the queer representation in this book. Even though no titles are actually given, I feel like the representation of bi, pan, and lesbian was really beautifully done. Witchy books with lineage at stake tends to not lend itself to any relationships other than heteronormative for progeny purposes. This was well done.

This book was magical and beautiful. I devoured it as one would devour the best honey. I loved the characters and the world building. It is a super slow burn of a novel, but it's worth it in the end. It was a little predictable, but I loved it all the same. It is rather political and thick with the social commentary. I think the idea of being in the secluded world of bees and magical creatures would be truly magical.

If you love a slow burn, magical story, this is it.

The Honey Witch is a respectable debut novel. It's beautiful and atmospheric, and it's a much-needed sapphic romantasy. Mari is likeable if not a little sombre at times, but who wouldn't be if they were cursed never to find true love? Shields explores Mari's curse in an interesting way, something that made me like this much more as it progressed. The idea of how such a curse would work is rarely explored and I highly commend Shields for doing so. Otherwise, The Honey Witch often struggled with slow pacing, which instead of enhancing the cozyiness drew away from it bordering on the-- dare I say-- boring. The real story didn't seem to start until around 20-30% mark, and again it is quite a slow burn. Ultimitely makeing this book level out to being just... okay.

It is without a doubt that Shields had a gorgeous vision for her honey witch, but is not quite there yet. That is not to say, she is still a very promising debut author and I am interested to see where she goes from here.

Special thanks to Redhook Books for the eARC.

I thought this was a really fun early fall read. I enjoyed the harder topics this book tackled. i also really did like the historcal setting and also found the characters to be really fun. I also enoyed thge world bulding. i did think the pacing of this book was a bit off and the plot seemed a it rushed!!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

First as always, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Now, review time.

This was another DNF for me. I know, the cover is stunning and the promise of the blurb drew me in but, in a word, it’s boring.

I was bored the entire time.

So we’ve got a 21 year old who’s not like other girls because she’s not interested in getting married. She wants to lay out at night under the moon and feel freedom. Alright, fine, being forced into marriage sucks, I’ll give her that.

But the character and her family kind of annoyed me. Especially her mother. She was cagey, aggravating. I don’t know, she just rubbed me wrong. Which, fine.

What really got me is that we’re supposed to be seeing her learn about her magic and working it and there’s a curse and-and, and it didn’t matter. The beginning felt rushed and the second she’s off with her grandmother, the writing got boring as hell.

There were themes I did enjoy in the bit that I read, like reproductive health care being a given. Apparently there’s a queer love story wrapped up in here which I did not get to because I just got so bored.

I wish I could have finished this book. But I set it down for months and when I picked it up, I just set it back down again.

Maybe it was a bad time for me, and if you enjoyed it, good. But for me, I didn’t.

I guess I’ll give this one 2 stars. There was a lot of potential but I couldn’t force my way to find it.

The honey witch is a cozy sapphic fantasy. I don’t read a lot of cozy fantasies but I’ll read almost anything if it’s sapphic.

I thought this book had an interesting premise. I can’t say I’ve read any other books that have a similar magic system. So, that was definitely unique to this book. The main character and the main love interest have a grumpy/sunshine dynamic. There are a lot of cute and interesting creatures in this book. I feel like this book would translate to screen really well and would definitely watch this if it was a movie.

What I liked:
- grumpyxsunshine relationship
- the word that the fmc resides in
- the romance portions of this book

What I didn’t love:
- it felt like not a whole lot happened in the plot

I received an ARC of this book to read and give my honest review.

The Honey Witch was a fun enjoyable magical cozy mystery book. I loved the relationship between marigold and her grandmother so very much. I was immersed on the scenes of where the pair lived. That being said I did not enjoy the love storylines in the book between August and Frankie, and marigold and lottie. I just don't enjoy Sapphic love stories. I do feel the book drug me in and I was invested in seeing how it would end. I did feel with all the backstories and climatic building that it did end a little abruptly.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read the arc of this book. The review above are my thoughts alone and we in no way prompted.

i wanted to find the honey witch whimsical and sweet but unfortunately it veered into overly saccharine territory with odd, rushed pacing (not at all what i expected from a cozy fantasy about a honey witch) and an illogical plot (does the author… know where babies come from??)

also the twist was painfully obvious and maybe try to keep your hands off of each other if your true love will literally die as a result.

…i did enjoy the bees.

I’ve been trying to read this book for months, but something about the writing doesn’t connect with me and I’m finding it very difficult to read. After seeing more reviews from similar reviewers who finished this book but didn’t like it, I have decided not to read the whole thing.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

I really thought I was going to love this book. It honestly seemed like something that would be right up my alley. The opening pages of this book are spectacular. If I would have guessed my enjoyment of this book based off of those first few pages, it would have been near perfect.

As the story continued though, I just found it kind of dry, I guess. There isn’t any particular thing that made me not want to reach for it, but maybe just everything all together. I ended up setting this book down about halfway though, and honestly, I never felt the drive to pick it back up.

Now I own the Fairyloot special edition (which is stunning, I’m not going to lie) and I still haven’t continued with the story. I think eventually, I will give this book another try, but for some reason I just did not connect with the plot and characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. While immensely appreciated, my review has not been edited or influenced.

There is one rule for honey witches: they cannot fall in love. Marigold Claud, the most recent honey with, has trouble accepting this aspect of her fate. With dark magic threatening her home, there is more than her love and freedom at stake.

I know The Honey Witch was the book of spring this year but I think it has the potential to be The Book of the Spring ™️, if you know what I mean. It has a sort of timeless quality that I believe will give it a staying power in the bookish community.

The first half of the book was incredibly slow paced. And while I think this was intentional, it didn’t work for me personally. I almost DNF’s the book because of it. However, the last half of the book? Completely made up for the first half. There was love and action abound.

Although this is heavily based on the real historical past, the world is almost queer normative? Or at least queerness isn’t demonized in the book the way it would be in real life. Our FMCs are not the only queer characters and everyone is met with love and acceptance.

I’m always going to be a sucker for a story about witches and romance. However, I specifically want to shout out the emphasis this book has family. Marigold’s relationship with her grandmother meant the world to me and was one of my favorite aspects of this book.

This book has also made me realize a favorite trope: love interests tattooing each other. Just trust me. Marigold and Lottie are an incredible duo. They’re one of those well balanced duos you just love to see. And their banter was top notch.

I love that this book delivered on all fronts- the vibes it marketed itself with, character development, romance, and happily ever afters. The pacing is my only complaint but it does, as I said, eventually, get better!

I enjoyed this cozy fantasy debut from Sydney J. Shields and I'm definitely looking forward to reading her future writing!

The Honey Witch does read like a debut to me, although I don't mean that in a bad way: there's some pacing issues and places where the writing feels a bit immature, which I find is a common struggle for me with debut releases. We get told a lot about the plot and characters very quickly without spending enough time in those early relationship scenes to actually *see* it. There's also some questions I have about the world-building and magic system that I feel like the plot just...hand-waves away. I also guessed the final reveal quite early, which left me feeling like I was waiting around for Marigold to also figure it out. Another reviewer mentioned that there was a lot of good here that they loved but that they never felt truly connected to the characters and I think that's where I'm panning out as well.

However, despite all that, I enjoyed it (it just took me longer to finish it than it might have otherwise). I loved that this was a homophobia-free world and that same-sex relationships were acceptable. Since there was no tension about being two women in the sapphic relationship at the core of the book, all the tension was derived from their interpersonal interactions and, eventually, the outside magical threat. While the pacing didn't take advantage of that as much as it could've, I think that was a smart choice to make in order to leave more room for character and relationship development. I love the concept of honey magic and, in general, am a sucker for "green magic"-type powers, so I was immediately drawn to Marigold and her magic.

I went back and forth between a 3.5 and 4 on this one. I think there's potential here and I'm really excited to see what Shields writes in the future, but I also think there's some weaknesses in the writing that hold this story back. The first section of the book, where Marigold is in her hometown, ended up feeling very tonally different from the rest of the book; in my crit group, we talk a lot about how the first few chapters are making a promise to the reader about what they should expect, and I feel like I enjoyed the back half of the book much more and if I hadn't pushed through, the front half might have caused me to DNF without giving that second half a chance. Starting us off with Marigold on the isle and spending more time on her training and time with her grandmother would've been a better set-up and helped us feel more invested in their relationship (better emphasizing the loss and grief themes we explore in the rest of the book).

I would definitely recommend picking this up if the storyline interests you but maybe temper your expectations a bit - the extreme hype this book got at release oversold it a bit for me. Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A beautifully written, atmospheric cozy queer romance perfect for autumn! I found myself rooting for the relationship to beat the odds stacked against them.

Oh I hate that I am writing this review. I have sat down so many times to read this book. I start it again and again and I just cant get into it. I think for me it just has to much historical feel for me. I loose interest and get a ants in my pants kind of feel and put the book down with no intention of returning. I do feel if you love books with the renaissance regency feel this would be right up your ally. But for this hardcore fantasy lover for me I just couldnt get past the feel to appreciate it and enjoy it.

AHHH OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALLOWING ME THE CHANCE TO READ THIS THE CHARACTERS ARE EVERYTHING

A new favourite, I can see myself singing this books praises till my dying days. A deliciously sweet sapphic romance featuring magic and disbelievers filled with gorgeous imagery and sweet serenity. I couldn't recommend this enough

I really loved the cozy fantasy vibes that this book gave off. I can imagine if I had read it when I first got the ARC it most definitely would have been a 5 star book for me, but I’m more doom and gloom horror at the moment 😂

This book was definitely a vibe! I loved it so much I had to get a special edition of it, which you can see on the link posted below!